[Shorewall-users] masq file: interface or ip address in source field?

[Rags <rag...@gm...>]

Hello,

I'm using Shorewall perl 4.4.1.2 with two pppoe connections, with fail-over
and load balancing.

When I upgraded to Shorewall-perl, I saw a bunch of warnings pop up after I
start/restart Shorewall. One was about the masq file , wherein instead of
using interface names, IP-addresses were to be used. So I made the changes
to the masq file like so.

#INTERFACE              SOURCE             ADDRESS         PROTO   PORT(S)
IPSEC   MARK
ppp0                          $PPP1_IP              $PPP0_IP
ppp1                          $PPP0_IP              $PPP1_IP
ppp0                          192.168.32.1
ppp1                          192.168.32.1

But, after that whenever I restart shorewall, I get a warning that both the
providers are down and no default route is added. But both the lines are in
fact up and when I revert the changes to the masq file everything goes back
to normal. I don't understand how that change in the masq file affected
this.

Shorewall -vvv restart output :

Shorewall-generated routing tables and routing rules removed
Adding Providers...
   WARNING: Gateway  is not reachable -- Provider BSNL8m (1) not Added
   WARNING: Gateway  is not reachable -- Provider BSNL256 (2) not Added
   WARNING: No Default route added (all 'balance' providers are down)
Setting up Traffic Control...


Also, One question I had about "loose" in the providers file. What I
understand is with out "loose" all traffic goes through hard coded paths,
while with "loose" there is more ambiguity and more uncertainty to which
outgoing line a packet will take and thus more "balanced" traffic. Is this
the case? Is my understanding correct here?

"loose" Omits certain route rules, so that is an advantage in terms of more
balanced traffic?

Thanks,

--
Raghu Siddarth